I have a young bastard who will grow, please God, and of whose good qualities I have great hope.
Take him, I pray you, for lord.

That he was not born in wedlock matters little to you; he will be none the less able in battle, or at court, or in the palace, or to render you justice.

I make him my heir, and I hold him seized, from this present, of the whole duchy of Normandy." And they who were present assented, but not without objection and disquietude.
There was certainly ample reason for objection and disquietude.

Not only was it a child of eight years of age to whom Duke Robert, at setting out on his pious pilgrimage, was leaving Normandy; but this child had been pronounced bastard by the duke his father at the moment of taking him for his heir.

Nine or ten years before, at Falaise, his favorite residence, Robert had met, according to some at a people's dance, according to others on the banks of a stream where she was washing linen with her companions, a young girl named Harlette or Harleve, daughter of a tanner in the town, where they show to this day, it is said, the window from which the duke saw her for the first time.